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Learning Language
Chapter 9
How is Language Possible?
 Theories
 Defining language
 Design Features
 Primates
 Acquisition of Language
 Speech Sounds
 When is language possible?…
 How is language possible?….
Contemporary Theories
 Theoretical linguistics:
 Still speculative
Language- evolved at once
 Language- innate feature in humans
 Children born with universal grammar


Only need to acquire specifics
 Linguistic anthropology:
 Uses all four fields of anthropology
Language too complicated to have developed all at once
 Language probably evolved slowly along with culture
 Children born with ability to learn language


Learning takes place in social situations.
Defining Language
Language
Communication
Sending
Yes
Yes
Receiving
Yes
Possible
Responding
Yes
Possible
Socially learned
Yes
No
Complex grammar
Yes
No
Lies, games, etc.
Yes
No
Defining Language
 Hockett’s Design Features of language
 1960s
 Defining what is unique to humans
 Thirteen features

Four are unique to human language.
Design Features of Language
Not Unique to Humans
 Vocal/auditory channel
 Broadcast transmission /
directional reception
 Rapid fading
 Interchangeability
 Total feedback
 Specialization
 Semanticity
 Arbitrariness
 Discreteness.
Unique to Humans:
(according to Hockett)
10.Displacement
11.Productivity
12.Traditional transmission
13.Duality of patterning
/ k + æ + t + s /.
Design Features and the Emergence of
Human Language
 The idea of blending
 Combining calls to establish productivity
 Starting from closed calls (limited, specific)

A+B=A+B


Moving to blended calls (prelanguage)

A + B = AB



danger + food = danger + food
danger + food = dangerous food
breakfast + lunch = brunch
Making duality of patterning possible

Isolation of units for recombining

A + B + C = ABC, CBA, BAC, ACB
Primate Communication
 Experiments:
 Chimpanzees
 Gorillas
 Orangutans
 What this tells us about language
 Duality of patterning is uniquely human
 What it tells us about language origins
 Pre-language abilities of humans and other primates
probably similar.
Acquisition of Language
 Development of linguistic ability is linked to maturation
of cognitive processes
 Sounds as abstract and arbitrary can be used to stand for
objects and ideas
 Chomsky (p.247):

“speaker’s ability to produce & understand instantly new sentences
that are not similar to those previously heard… It seems plain that
language acquisition is based on the child’s discovery of what from a
formal point of view is a deep & abstract theory- a generative
grammar of his/her language”
 Jean Piaget & Lev Vygotsky’s theories

Individual cognition & social needs as driving force for language
Children and Language
 3 days – recognizing parents’ sounds
 3 months – cooing, playing with intonation
 6 months – babbling, playing with sounds
 9 months – beginning signs
 1 year – recognizable spoken words & speak single
words (Holophrastic)
 15 months – naming “explosion”
 2 years – simple sentences, displacement
 Then – negatives, questions, clauses.
Theories about Language in Children
 Innatist theories
 Language hard-wired in brain
 Behaviorist theories
 Stimulus and reward
 Cognitivist theories
 Concepts come first
 The theory theory
 Children observe and build theories

Different languages - different theories?
Complex Grammars
 Cognitive development and experiential maturation
stimulate children to expand their linguistic abilities
 Two important themes:
1.
2.
Development awareness that organization w/in sentences is
significant
Transferring learning from one context to others by processes
of analogy & rule generalization.
WHEN is Language Possible?
 Connected to HOW
 Involves research into brain…
 And vocal tract…
 And origins of culture….
The Human Brain
 Cortex
 The convoluted surface of the
brain
 Two millimeters thick
 Surface area 1.5 square yards
 Contains 100 million neurons
 Oldest part of cortex
 Controls long term memory
 And emotion
 Newer part of cortex
 “Neocortex”
 Controls language
 80% of human brain
 Divided into lobes




Frontal
Temporal
Parietal
Occipital.
Lateralization & Language
• Two cerebral hemispheres
• Connected by corpus callosum
 Left hemisphere




association
calculation
analysis
language
 Right hemisphere




touch
space
music
contexts for language
use.
Language Areas of the Brain
 Broca’s area
 Clarity of speech
 Function words
 Some word order
 Wernicke’s area
 Understanding words
 Producing sentences.
The Human Vocal Tract
 Lowering of the larynx
 Where vocal cords are located
 Lengthening of the pharynx
 More space for tongue
 Increased vowel resonance

Differentiation of vowels: [i] [a] [u]
 Human infants born with high larynx
 Begins to lower at three months
 Reaches adult location by 3-4 years

Except in adult males: further descent at adolescence.
The Fossil Record
 Evidence from basicranium
 Where muscles attach
 More curved = lower larynx
 Australopithecus (1.5 mya) not curved
 Homo habilis (2 mya) no data
 Homo erectus (1.6 mya) some curve
 Early Homo sapiens (400,000 ya) definite curve
 Homo sapiens sapiens (125,000 ya) ditto
 Neanderthal (130,000 ya) no curve.
Origins of Culture
 Associating language with complex tools
 evolution of tool design provides clues

complexity of Upper Paleolithic tools
 requires description (vs imitation)
 Associating language with cultural complexity
 art, music, ritual,
cooperative hunting/childcare.
The Fossil Record
 Australopithecus (1.5 mya) first stone tools
 Homo habilis (2 mya) control of fire
 Homo erectus (1.6 mya) organized hunting?
 Early Homo sapiens (400,000 ya) shelters, burials
 Homo sapiens sapiens (125,000 ya) knitting,
basketweaving
 Neanderthal (130,000 ya) burials, music.